Cargill look to achieve 100% traceability on cocoa beans

What is happening: Cargill have introduced a new action plan that aims to achieve 100% traceability in cocoa beans.

Plan: The action plan, Protect Our Planet, also hopes to get rid of deforestation from its supply chain entirely by 2030. This starts with a promise not to convert any more forest land in Ghana or the Ivory Coast for production. The plan includes traceability and transparency, as they look to digitally map out their supply chain farms and track where beans are coming from to ensure they are not from protected areas.

Ghana: 100% traceability has already been achieved in Ghana, with the Ivory Coast to follow in 2020.

Deforestation: A recent study by the BioCarbon Fund, Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), and the World Cocoa Foundation and Climate Focus highlighted the concentration of cocoa production deforestation in West Africa.

What did the study say: “Global production relies almost entirely on five to six million smallholders, and beyond the smallholder production level the cocoa value chain is highly concentrated among several traders, grinders and chocolate producer. While the deforestation occurs at the smallholder level, it is the companies, governments, and NGOs that need to take action due to the limited technical and economic capacity of smallholders to enact the necessary reforms on their own.”

What did Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate president Harold Poelma say: “We have made important first steps, but there is more to be done, and we believe that this action plan is how we will reach our goal.”